Today's Question: How do you categorize your work???

[Theylo_Bleu]

Here's a thread for: When you write a story that kinda sorta (or maybe a whole lot) exists between categories. How do you pick which one to put it in.

Ex: You've got a beautiful coupling, you've got romance, you've got eroticism, oh, and they're trans and two different racial backgrounds...

Romance? Erotic Couplings? TS/CD? Interracial?

Thoughts?

 

[SimonDoom]

My general principle is that I will publish a story in the category where I think it will get the most reads, so long as the Site is likely, based on its criteria, to publish it there.

My caveat to that is that I may decline to publish a story in Loving Wives, even though it may otherwise fit there, if I believe that the reception will be so hostile that I'm better off publishing it elsewhere.

 

[BareAmy83]

Here's a thread for: When you write a story that kinda sorta (or maybe a whole lot) exists between categories. How do you pick which one to put it in.

Ex: You've got a beautiful coupling, you've got romance, you've got eroticism, oh, and they're trans and two different racial backgrounds...

Romance? Erotic Couplings? TS/CD? Interracial?

Thoughts?

I'd probably put it in the one that I think will get the most viewership.

So, like incest vs sci-fi, I'm going incest.

Lesbian vs Straight, I'm going Lesbian...

But, that's just me.

 

[StillStunned]

This place would be more interesting if categories were assigned randomly.

 

[SimonDoom]

This place would be more interesting if categories were assigned randomly.

If by "more interesting" you mean "would have fewer readers and have less traffic" I would agree.

 

[Jackie.Hikaru]

. <- I literally roll a die.

I'm guessing a 20-sided die.
1 = lw for sure. Wonder what 20 is

 

[Euphony]

20 is romance.

Was my thought.

Lesbian and Taboo do numbers but voters with agendas occasionally drag w/o reading.

 

[Euphony]

20 is romance.

Sci Fi seems pretty agreeable. Or am I looking at the result of author clustering, not how random author submission would fare?

 

[AG31]

I've sometimes wondered how one distinguishes between NC/R and BDSM, but I just stick to BDSM, unless it's clearly something else like EC.

 

[alohadave]

I've sometimes wondered how one distinguishes between NC/R and BDSM, but I just stick to BDSM, unless it's clearly something else like EC.

BDSM runs on consent. It's about the polar opposite of NC/R.

 

[RainyDayPen]

BDSM runs on consent. It's about the polar opposite of NC/R.

I found it all very tricky when dealing with a Total Power Exchange story. I got scolded for it being NC even though they'd signed a contract. It's just a confusing situation sometimes.

Oh - to add to this thread, I was wondering what folks thought were the most popular categories?

 

[alohadave]

Oh - to add to this thread, I was wondering what folks thought were the most popular categories?

In terms of views, incest. Comments and votes, LW.

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

My general principle is that I will publish a story in the category where I think it will get the most reads, so long as the Site is likely, based on its criteria, to publish it there.

My caveat to that is that I may decline to publish a story in Loving Wives, even though it may otherwise fit there, if I believe that the reception will be so hostile that I'm better off publishing it elsewhere.

I'm new enough to the site that I haven't yet found those nuances in practice. Here's hoping I don't find this out the hard way

 

[AG31]

BDSM runs on consent. It's about the polar opposite of NC/R.

Well, not in my world. I was introducted to the term maybe sixty years ago, when it just meant literally bondage, discipline/domination, sadism, and masochism. After many decades of reading no erotica, I re-entered that literary world and spent many months trying to make sense of the "life-style" connotations of BDSM. A number of critics of my stories told me I had it "wrong." Wrong? How could my fantasies be "wrong?"

I finally got fairly clear on the modern understanding of BDSM and have decided to use the less loaded S&M whenever I need to talk about it.

You have clued me in to a possible problem I may have in putting almost all my stories in the BDSM category, but NC/R doesn't really work for me. I'll have to investigate further. I suppose it takes just as long to switch categories as it does to make any other kind of edit... Sigh...

Alert to @RainyDayPen

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

I'd probably put it in the one that I think will get the most viewership.

So, like incest vs sci-fi, I'm going incest.

Lesbian vs Straight, I'm going Lesbian...

But, that's just me.

helpful hint, thanks!

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

This place would be more interesting if categories were assigned randomly.

goes to incest/taboo "These people aren't even related at all!"

 

[KeithD]

Here's a thread for: When you write a story that kinda sorta (or maybe a whole lot) exists between categories. How do you pick which one to put it in.

Ex: You've got a beautiful coupling, you've got romance, you've got eroticism, oh, and they're trans and two different racial backgrounds...

Romance? Erotic Couplings? TS/CD? Interracial?

Thoughts?

It's situational on the basis of the content of that particular story.

 

[StillStunned]

If by "more interesting" you mean "would have fewer readers and have less traffic" I would agree.

I just do the ideas. It's up to other people to make them work.

 

[RainyDayPen]

Incest and LW, I'll never get good views, haha. Just not my thing personally but not shame to all who enjoy. Does romance do well?

 

[samhasstories]

I almost entirely stick to Exhibitionist/Voyeur. Some of my stuff could probably fit into other categories - they don't necessarily include a lot of super public sex or people watching (though some of them do), but I think I stick with that category because of the spirit of the thing. I enjoy playing around with the feeling and thrill of being exposed. So I think for me it's less about checking the boxes of plot requirements than it is about the element of the story that turns me on. And that's the EV stuff.

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

. <- I literally roll a die.

a game within a game!

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

Was my thought.

Lesbian and Taboo do numbers but voters with agendas occasionally drag w/o reading.

who's out here tanking the good works! yikes

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

BDSM runs on consent. It's about the polar opposite of NC/R.

so real

 

[intim8]

I tend to stick to E&V as well. My stories do tend to feature public-ish nudity and sex, but don't usually focus on it. Still, the category has seemed to have turned into a grab-bag of sorts. So long as there's some tiny scene of sex with somebody else in the room, or a hint of even potential public exposure, almost anything seems to do well there.

My stories usually wander across category lines with impunity. I like to focus on what is going through people's heads rather than just what's going on lower, and people aren't as one-dimensional as the categories here. And I tend towards longer stories with more than one scene. I have been thinking about branching out though, but since most of my reading has been in E&V, I'm not as familiar with the expectations in other categories.

No Talent Hack's recent story about LW got me thinking that the draft I just finished might actually be a fit there.

 

[Theylo_Bleu]

Well, not in my world. I was introducted to the term maybe sixty years ago, when it just meant literally bondage, discipline/domination, sadism, and masochism. After many decades of reading no erotica, I re-entered that literary world and spent many months trying to make sense of the "life-style" connotations of BDSM. A number of critics of my stories told me I had it "wrong." Wrong? How could my fantasies be "wrong?"

I finally got fairly clear on the modern understanding of BDSM and have decided to use the less loaded S&M whenever I need to talk about it.

You have clued me in to a possible problem I may have in putting almost all my stories in the BDSM category, but NC/R doesn't really work for me. I'll have to investigate further. I suppose it takes just as long to switch categories as it does to make any other kind of edit... Sigh...

Alert to @RainyDayPen

oh switching categories is such a chore. I gave up and just let my story live apart from the rest of it's brethren for that reason.